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Greece
During the Hyborian Age, the earliest civilizations to appear around Greece were the ancient city-state of Corinthia, which ruled over a small territory in what would later be the Greek peninsual. During that time, the Mediterrean Sea still was dry and Corinthia was a prosperous but otherwise weak area. After the decline of Hyboria caused by the onslaught of the Picts, supernatural beings which would later develope to the gods of Sumeria and the God of Christianity, Judaism and Islam unleashed a Great Flood, which destroyed even the rests of Hyboria as well as many other empires around the globe, including Corinthia, knocking the world back into another Stone Age while at the same time creating the Mediterranean Sea. Taking advantage of the following power vacuum, beings with god-like power known as the Titans seized power over most of continental Europe as well as the Mediterranean Region. But the Titans' mercyless rule would be of limited duration: The Olympians, the Titans' very own children who would later become the gods of Greece, led a rebellion against their ancestors with the help of the cyclopes, the centaurs and the armies of Mu, an island empire witch would soon be called Atlantis. Following the end the Titanic War, the Titans were banished into the underworld realm of Tartarus while the Olympians settled down at Mount Olympus, stretching their rule over the Greek peninsual. In the following decades, Greece still was only a prehistoric society of nomadic hunter-gatherers until the Atlanteans began to colonize Greece, thus founding several Bronze Age civilizations generally known as the Aegean civilization. Soon, many originally Atlantean colonies like Argos, Mycenae and Knossos were claimed by the Olympians, gaining independence from their founders. Thus, the first poleis came to existance. In order to benefit the progress of his people, a man named Prometheus stole the secrets of fire from the Olympians and gave it to the mortals. But for his good deed, Prometheus had to pay: Outraged, Zeus himself banished Prometheus to Tartarus, where he would be torted by an eagle eating his liver every day. In the following centuries, many others were imprisoned in Tartarus, too, like Tantalus who stole nectar and ambrosia from the Olympians and Sisyphus who is cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. Nevertheless, thanks to Prometheus' sacrifice a Golden Age began. At the Greek mainland, the founding of the city of Thebes by Kadmos and the beheading of the wicked gorgo Medusa by Zeus' son Perseus who would later found the Pereid dynasty of Mycenae established the first powerful city-states of Greece. After the Phoenician princess Europa discovered Crete, the Minoan Empire began to establish the first Thalassocracy, the "rule of the sea". The Minoan influence reached its peak during the long lasting rule of King Minos, Europa's son, around 1.600 BC. Apart from notably extending the Minoans' power, Minos constructed various monuments in Knossos, most notably its famous palace as well as the Labyrinth in which he imprisoned the Minotaur, a wicked creature part man and part bull, born by Minos' wife as a curse of Zeus himself. The Labyrinth was constructed by Daedalus, a famous scientist and engineer who would achieve notoriety because of the tragic death of his son Icarus during their escape from Crete. The following century marked the Greek Golden Age of Heroism, known as the Mythical Age. Various heroes wandered through the lands, fulfilling acts of heroism wherever they came. Arguably the greatest of these heroes was Hercules who mastered the Twelve Labours in order to redeem the murder of his wife and children. These tasks included, for instance, slaying the Hydra, obtaining the Apples of the Hesperides and capturing the three-headed guardian dog of the Underworld, Cerberus. After fulfilling his missions as well as other adventures like his travel with the Argonauts and the first siege of Troy, Hercules burned himself to end the pain caused by the Tunic of Nessus and after his death he had been granted godhood. Another important hero was Theseus, the cousin of Hercules. Theseus, the heir to the thrown of Athens, slew the dreadful Minotaur in order to break the Minoans power over Athens. After his return, Theseus became king and fell in love with the Amazon queen Hippolyta, whose love was blessed by Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of Greek fairies. Soon, he started a war against the Amazons of Themyscira triggered by the abduction of the Amazon queen Antiope and later Theseus had to defend his city against the invading Atlanteans. During that time, the Greek city of Thebes experienced an age of prosperity thanks to the benevolent rule of King Oedipus. Last but not least, there was also Jason who led a group of warriors called the Argonauts to obtain the Golden Fleece. But in 1194 BC, not even two years after the death of Hercules, Greece would enter a decade of brutal warfare and seemingly never ending bloodbath, which was triggered by Eris, the goddess of strife and Discordianism: Eris initiated a quarrel between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite using the Golden Apple of Discord. This quarrel led to the Judgment of Paris which encouraged Paris, the prince of Troy, to abduct Helen, the wife of Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus' brother Agamemnon of Mycenae gathered the troops and heroes of united Greece, known as the Achaeans, and convinced them to invade Troy, leading to a bloody conflict known as the Trojan War. But even with their superiority in numbers, the Greeks besieged the city for ten years not beeing able to overwhelm the Trojan walls. During the war, both sides lost most of their greatest heroes, including Achilles and Ajax the Great as well as Hector and Paris, both princes of Troy and sons of King Priam. Finally and thanks to the cunningness of Odysseus and the warcraft of Arkantos of Atlantis, the Achaeans managed to storm the city using the Trojan Horse. The Greek troops slaughtered the Trojans without mercy and even dared to raid the temples, thus angering the gods who cursed those who were responsible for Troy's defeat: Agamemnon was murdered by his wife shortly after he returned home and Odysseus had to wander the sea for ten years until he found his way back to his wife. But the most outraged god was Poseidon, god of the sea, who betrayed his people in favour of the cyclops Gargarensis and aided him in his plot to free the Titans using ancient gates leading to Tartarus. Arkantos the Atlantean and his followers defended the first three portals located in Hades, Egypt and Scandinavia until Gargarensis' hordes invaded Atlantis to open the last remaining gate, leading to Atlantis' destruction by the angered Poseidon himself. But even though Gargarensis was dead, his plans wouldn't die with him. The Titans' ruler Cronos contacted and corrupted the surviving Atlanteans led by Arkantos' son Kastor some years after Atlantis' sinking. Manipulated by Cronos, the people of the newly founded city of New Atlantis liberated the Titans. They caused havoc all over Greece, Egypt and the Norse realm and only the united troops of Greece, Egypt and the Vikings were able to ban the Titans once again. There are no fixed or universally agreed dates for the beginning or the end of the Classical Greek period which followed the Mythical Age. In common usage it refers to all Greek history before the Roman Empire, but historians use the term more precisely. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe which also revived the history of Orpheus and Eurydice, two star-crossed lovers who lived during 530 BC. The competing city-states Athens and Sparta would soon have to become allies in the face of the largest external threat ancient Greece would see until the Roman conquest. After suppressing a revolut of conquered Greek poleis, Darius I of Persia decided to subjugate Greece. His invasion in 490 BC was ended by the heroic Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon under Kratos, the most powerful warrior in Greek history. But the Persian invasion would only mark the beginning of another age of war. After his victory at Marathon, Kratos set out to challenge and finally kill Ares using Pandora's box, thus becoming the next Olympian god of war. But Kratos used his newly aquired powers to aid Sparta's conquests in Greece, thus making the other Olympians his enemies. Cursed by the gods, Kratos freed the Titans once more and led an assault against Mount Olympus triggering the Third Titanic War. Even tough the Titans could be stopped once more by a warrior known only as the "Hero of Helos" who slew their minnions, the mighty Telichines, the Olympians decided to lose contact with the mortals as they were able to protect themselves. With the Olympians as well as all the mythical creatures like Centaurs and Cyclopes gone, the Persian god-king Xerxes I gained advantage of the situation by invading Greece once more. Leading an overwhelmingly large army, Xerxes triggered the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Despite the defenders consisted mainly of 300 Spartiats led by King Leonidas and the Persians ultimatly managed to defeat them, they suffered from extrem losses, slowing down there conquest significantly. One year later, the united army of most of Greece's city-states led by Dilios of Spartafinally defeated the remains of Xerxes' army in the Battle of Plataea. The Greco-Persian Wars continued until 449 BC, led by the Athenians and their Delian League, during which time the Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and Ionia were all liberated from Persian influence. The dominant position of the maritime Athenian 'Empire' threatened Sparta and the Peloponnesian League of mainland Greek cities. Inevitably, this led to conflict, resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Though effectively a stalemate for much of the war, Athens suffered a number of setbacks. The Plague of Athens in 430 BC followed by a disastrous military campaign known as the Sicilian Expedition severely weakened Athens. An estimated one-third of Athenians died, including the mighty Pericles, one of Athens' greatest leaders and reformaters. In 404 BC, a woman named Lysistrata organized the women of Sparta and Athens and forced a collective sexual strike until the men of Athens and Sparta end the war. Finally, Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement. Greece thus entered the 4th century under a Spartan hegemony, but it was clear from the start that this was weak. The weakened state of the heartland of Greece coincided with the rising power of Macedon, led by Philip II. In twenty years, Philip had unified his kingdom, expanded it north and west at the expense of Illyrian tribes, and then conquered Thessaly and Thrace. His success stemmed from his innovative reforms to the Macedon army. Alexander, son and successor of Philip, continued the war. Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia and completely destroyed the Achaemenid Empire, annexing it to Macedon and earning himself the epithet 'the Great'. When Alexander died due to a sickness released from Pandora's box in 323 BC, Greek power and influence was at its zenith. However, there had been a fundamental shift away from the fierce independence and classical culture of the poleis—and instead towards the developing Hellenistic culture. During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. Most of the Greek peninsula came under Roman rule in 146 BC, Macedonia becoming a Roman province, while southern Greece came under the surveillance of Macedonia's praefect. However, some Greek poleis led fierce opposition against the Romans, most notably Sparta. During this time of resistance, Greece once more witnessed the rise and fall of a great hero: Xena, known as the warrior princess who was famous for numerous adventures like meeting Julius Caesar and defending Greece against the invading steppe peoples led by Borias. More and more resisting city-states fell under Roman control, until Sparta was the last independant polis. Emperor Tiberius (42 BC-37 AD) led an invasion against Sparta which was stopped by King Leonidas III and his champion "The Spartiat" using an invention of Archimedes, known as "the Eye of Apollon". Nevertheless, Sparta was destroyed during the Spartiats abscence, thus ending the ancient history of Greece. Category:Countries